Advice for my Dad

yorksbabe

Hi guys, I would really love some advice for my Dad please....
He retired nearly 4 years ago, but the company asked if he would continue working there for 2 days a week. He agreed and signed a 6 month contract (he hasn't signed anymore contracts since then). He has now been told they are making him redundant citing lack of work. When they told him this, they also said as you are retired you won't get any redundancy pay.

My questions are
1. Where does he stand, as in the 6 month contract he signed nearly 4 years ago?
2. Would he be classed as part time, and so entitled to redundancy pay?

any help would be great, as he is stressing a little.
Thanks everyone!

sangie595

yorksbabe wrote: »

Hi guys, I would really love some advice for my Dad please....
He retired nearly 4 years ago, but the company asked if he would continue working there for 2 days a week. He agreed and signed a 6 month contract (he hasn't signed anymore contracts since then). He has now been told they are making him redundant citing lack of work. When they told him this, they also said as you are retired you won't get any redundancy pay.

My questions are
1. Where does he stand, as in the 6 month contract he signed nearly 4 years ago?
2. Would he be classed as part time, and so entitled to redundancy pay?

any help would be great, as he is stressing a little.
Thanks everyone!

All things being equal, such as there being no break in employment, he is still fully entitled to redundancy pay on his FULL service. The days when you couldn't get redundancy after retirement age are long gone. There is no longer a " retirement age " and if someone older is being made redundant they are still entitled to the full due process - otherwise it would also be unfair dismissal and probably age discrimination too. The employer had better get some more up to date advice or this will cost them dearly.

yorksbabe

Thanks for your reply! Do you know where he stands with the contract? He signed a 6 month contract, but has not been given another once to sign since, which means working out of contract for over 3 years, as they said they wanted to sort a "10 year" contract for him to sign.

TBagpuss

Well, he clearly isn't on a fixed term 6 month contract as he's been there four years.

A contract doesn't have to be written (although his employers should have given him written terms) I think it is likely that any terms of that contract , such as notice periods, will probably still apply.

He may find it worth while paying for an initial consultation with an employment lawyer - many offer a fixed fee initial consultation which could answer some of his questions.

yorksbabe

Thankyou! I will let my Dad know

sangie595

The six month contract isn't relevant - even temporary employment would count towards continuous service, and it is continuous service that counts. What is important is that there are no gaps between contracts of one week (including two Saturdays) or more, because that would break continuous service. That would mean that the number of years used to calculate redundancy pay would only start after the gap.

Bogof_Babe

What do you mean by "he retired nearly four years ago"? If he simply changed from full time to part time, and didn't commence drawing an employment pension, then that is hardly retiring is it?

Or are you saying he did commence payment of his employment pension? In which case, it's only the further four years' worth of service that are in question.

McKneff

Shame on them for being either ignorant of the law or ttrying to do him out of any entitlement to redundancy.
His position is that he works part time, going down from full time four years ago, he is entitled to full redundancy payment from day one. Any accrued holiday pay too.

Wish him well and tell him to stand his ground. and well done to you for looking out for him.

Come back on here if you need to x

Manxman_in_exile

I'm probably being dim as I read the OP to mean that dad had retired and taken an occupational pension which I thought (probably wrongly) would wipe out his previous service for redundancy purposes.


Have I got the wrong end of the stick?

badmemory

They should have kept renewing his contract for 6 months at a time & saved themselves a lot of money. They way I see it is that the 6 months contract signalled the start of new employment, although to be absolutely clear on that they should have insisted on a break of at least a couple of weeks between the old (retired from) contract and the new (part time) contract. With no new contract then 4 years employment giving 6 weeks redundancy plus payment in lieu of notice plus holiday pay.

However, if there was no break between the full time & part time (retired) employment then redundancy for the full period should be payable. I believe that taking any pension at any stage would be irrelevant to this.

getmore4less

Some employers(like the NHS) have specific terms to cover this area.
Some go even further an insist on a break as well .

If they don't have terms and he did not have a break in employment there is a good chance he will be entitled to a full statutory redundancy even if he did take a pension.


I would also check they have not been forgetful in other areas like paid holidays.